World War II Day by Day

The Daily Chronicles of World War II

Beirut, Lebanon · July 12, 1941During their advance on the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in June 1941, the British shot down a Luft­waffe air­craft flown in support of the pro-German Iraqi govern­ment of Rashid Ali el‑Ghalani. (El-Ghalani had led a nation­alist coup that un­seated a pro-British regime weeks before and was under­stood to be negoti­ating for German mili­tary support.) The nearest Axis bases were on the east­ern Aegean island of Rhodes. The British deduced that the air­craft had to first land some­where between Rhodes and Iraq to be able to fly to Bagh­dad. The only possi­ble spot was Syria, which was gar­ri­soned by Vichy French sol­diers under the com­mand of Vichy High Com­mis­sioner Gen. Henri Dentz. (The Vichy gar­ri­son in Syria was an arti­fact of Franco-German col­labo­ra­tion following the fall of France in June 1940; a May 1941 proto­col allowed the rump Vichy French state to con­tinue gar­ri­soning and admin­istering France’s over­seas terri­tories in exchange for ceding Ger­many and Italy the use of mili­tary bases in Syria, Tuni­sia, and West Africa.) Opera­tion Ex­porter, the in­va­sion of Syria and Leba­non by British Com­mon­wealth and Free French in­fan­try, armored units, and air­craft began on the morning of June 8, 1941. It followed on the heels of a 5,800-strong Com­mon­wealth march on Bagh­dad that im­posed a British-Iraqi armis­tice. Vichy French troops vigo­rously resisted British and Aus­tra­lian columns moving into Leba­non from Pales­tine, at the time a Brit­ish Man­date. Pres­sure there even­tually over­whelmed Vichy resis­tance and, when com­bined with the destruc­tion of Ger­man air­bases in Syria by east­ward-driving Free French forces and a British-led advance on Damas­cus from Iraq, Gen. Dentz nego­ti­ated an armis­tice in Acre (in modern Israel) on this date in 1941. The armi­stice placed Syria under Gen. Charles de Gaulle, head of the Free French Army. Nearly 6,000 Vichy sol­diers switched sides. British Prime Minis­ter Winston Chur­chill’s dis­patch of troops to topple the pro-German mili­tary junta in Iraq and the Allied occu­pa­tion of Leba­non and Syria con­ferred three stra­te­gic benefits on the victors: it restored sta­bility in a cri­tical area of the Middle East, it foiled Ger­man attempts to gain con­trol or influ­ence over these states and neu­tral Iran (Per­sia), and it en­sured a stable supply of Middle Eastern oil to the Allies.

Operation Exporter: The Syria-Lebanon Campaign, June 8 to July 14, 1941

Above: Movement of Allied forces into Syria and Lebanon, June 8 to July 14, 1941. Aus­tra­lians com­prised the largest number of Allied com­ba­tants (18,000 men), followed by British (9,000), French (5,000), and Indian (2,000) forces. On the Vichy side there were 8,000 French and 25,000 Syrians and Lebanese.

Left: The fall of Damascus to the Allies, June 18–21, 1941. A car carrying two Free French com­manders, escorted by Vichy French cavalry, enters the city in this photo.Right: Australian troops at the French Aleppo air­field, Syria, June 1941. In the back­ground are Morane-Saulnier MS.406 fighters. The initial 5:1 ad­van­tage the Vichy French Air Force (Armée de l’Air de Vichy) enjoyed over the RAF and the Royal Aus­tra­lian Air Force quickly evap­o­rated. Most Vichy air­craft were de­stroyed on the ground. In all, Vichy forces lost 179 air­craft from about 289 that had been com­mitted to defending French Syria and Lebanon.

Left: The Battle of Beirut (July 12, 1941) marked the end of hos­tili­ties in the Syria-Lebanon cam­paign. The entry of the Aus­tra­lian 7th Divi­sion into Bei­rut suc­cess­fully estab­lished the Allied occu­pa­tion of Leba­non. Beirut later became an im­por­tant Allied base for Medi­ter­ranean naval oper­a­tions. This photo shows mem­bers of the Aus­tra­lian 7th Divi­sion, 2/25th Bat­talion in Beirut, Septem­ber 12, 1941. The 2/25th Bat­talion, which had ear­lier entered the Syrian capi­tal Damas­cus on June 21, was em­ployed on gar­ri­son duties along the coast after the mid-July armistice came into effect.Right: Maj. Gen. Arthur Allen (center), commander of the Aus­tra­lian 7th Divi­sion, inspects some of his men east of Beirut, September 1941.

Allied Operations in the Middle East, Second Half of 1941

WORLD WAR II DAY BY DAY EBOOK

History buffs, there is good news! The Daily Chronicles of World War II is now avail­able as an ebook for $4.99 on Amazon.com. Con­taining a year’s worth of dated entries from this web­site, the ebook brings the story of this tumul­tu­ous era to life in a com­pelling, author­i­ta­tive, and suc­cinct man­ner. Fea­turing inven­tive naviga­tion aids, the ebook enables readers to instantly move for­ward or back­ward by month and date to dif­fer­ent dated entries. Simple and elegant! Click here to purchase the ebook.